The Oldest Dinosaur from Africa - Mbiresaurus and Biggest Pterosaur from the Triassic Period - Caelestiventus coloring page

Welcome to my free coloring pages blog. 

Today's new drawing features three types of Triassic Period animals.  

Triassic Animals:  Mbiresaurus,  Caelestiventus, & Adelobasileus

Mbiresaurus was a small dinosaur from what is now Africa.  It is the oldest African dinosaur ever discovered.  It was the last common ancestor of Sauropods and Ornithopods.  Sauropods were the huge long-neck dinosaurs that walked on four legs and were the biggest living land animals ever to walk the Earth.  But this was a tiny dinosaur in comparison. Ornithopods were the dinosaurs that looked like large ostriches.  The full name for this small dinosaur is Mbiresaurus raathi.  The genus name comes from the Mbire Dynasty of Zimbabwe.  The cool species name honors an early dinosaur bone hunter from the area.  He was named Michael Raath and he helped discover the first of the area's dinosaur fossils.  

 Mbiresaurus lived in the late Triassic Period.  That was 230 million years ago.  This dinosaur was found in Zimbabwe, Africa. It was only about 6 feet 7 inches long.  It weighed somewhere between 22 and 66 lbs or 10 to 30 kg.  

The Pterosaur is called Caelestiventus hanseni.  The genus name means heavenly wind.  The species name honors Robin Hansen.  He was the Bureau of Land Management geologist who helped the excavation team get access to the fossil site.  (I like his first name.  Do you know why?)  Caelestiventus was a small early Pterosaur.  Ir had a wingspan of 4.9 feet or about 1.5 meters.  I called it small because it would look like a sparrow compared to some of the later Pterosaurs of the Cretaceous Period 160 million years later.  But quite possibly it was the biggest Pterosaur of the Triassic Period. 

The small rodent-like animal you see was one of the early proto-mammals of the Triassic.  It is called Adelobasileus.  It is also called a mammaliamorph.  It was a Cynodont mammilimorph.  So, it had characteristics of the Cynodont mammal-like reptiles and features of a mammal, like fur. Adelobasileus was only about 4-5 inches long or 10-12 cm.  The mammaliamorph is in the foreground so it looks bigger than it would if it were side by side with the dinosaur.  It is possible that this small furry animal was one of the ancestors of later mammals, including humans.  I hope this species is not annoyed with me for leaving them out of the title of this post.  I DID include this name on the title of the drawing.

These three animals all lived in the late Triassic Period, although they were not all found in the same place, however, since during the Triassic Period the Earth was all one continent (Pangea) then it is possible that these animals may have been seen together. 

By the way, the plants in this drawing are ancient plants from the Triassic Period.  They include cycads, ferns, and club moss. There are three periods in the Mesozoic Era:  Triassic was the first, then the better-known Jurassic Period, and then the Cretaceous Period.  Dinosaurs and Pterosaurs first appeared in the Triassic Period. The Mesozoic Period ended when the Chichlub meteorite hit the Yucatan Peninsula. 

NOTE:  These drawings are found, in printable form, by clicking on the Paleontology button and scrolling to the bottom of the part of the "Mesozoic Life" list.  Click on the title of the drawing to get the printable coloring page.